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Archive for March, 2011

Though I am taking a telecommunications class and plan on switching my major to telecommunications, I am currently a Business Marketing major. So I am taking a class called Business Presentations, where we give speeches and group business presentations. Next week we are giving group presentations for a Macy’s marketing competition. The goal is to create a new marketing strategy for Macy’s to better target the Millennial Generation aka Generation Y (which is us). The winners get a trip to New York and money!!

So, my group (aka The Council) is creating a subsidiary store for Macy’s called Rowland & Co., which will be specifically for the demographic Macy’s wants to target better. Trying to think of creative ways to make this image appeal to the Macy’s executives, I came up with the idea to give them a visual of what the store might look like and show them what we mean when we say “opening a store connected to Macy’s that still has a separate entrance.” So, I opened up Google Sketch Up and got to work. I started creating a Macy’s, adding the sign from the store, and then found shelving and clothing to put in Rowland & Co. I was happy to find that the 3D Warehouse had folded jeans, folded shirts, stylish wooden shelving (the exact shelving we wanted actually), clothing racks, manikins, and even a crowd so I could make it look like a popular place!
I had thought it was funny because just as I was thinking about making a small sketchup of the store as my own visual aid, someone in my group said, “I wish there was a way we could show them a model of what we’re talking about” (They actually did), and I said “Oh there is” and proceeded to open up sketchup and show off the program. Then I started building the stores and they agreed that it was a great tool to use and a perfect way to give the Macy’s executives an accurate visual.

Her fingers click-clack-clopped away at the keyboard, almost as if they were digging for treasure underneath the keys. Her eyes scanned the monitor, waiting for something to pop out at her like a jack-in-the-box toy. Her fingers typed and her eyes searched and she continued, like every night, for hours, waiting for results to blossom.

The sting of the slap waded in and out like a storm siren, increasing and decreasing in intensity every second. Mason looked at Tracy with disbelief as she returned the stare with careless anger. He searched her eyes for any hope of reconciliation, but when he turned up nothing, he clenched his jaw and left.

Eve scrunched her toes into the thick beige rope of the shag carpet beneath her. She laid there, her bosom to the floor, watching the time pass in the form of golden stripes spilling through the blinds onto the stained rug before her. Barely breathing, she considered her life, everything that was just so ordinary.

Harry sat in his armchair, sipping at water Penny gave him, never looking away from the window. He would fall asleep there, half-eaten grilled cheese resting abandoned on his lap. Sometimes, Penny would stand outside the window while he slept. She would stand there and pretend. Pretend that she was who he was waiting for.

She burst into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She wanted to scream, but she didn’t. Burning tears poured down her face as she sliced her nails over her face violently. Her jaw locked in a silent scream and she beat and kicked at the wall. She went to the sink and splashed her face with water.

As Greg considered the possibilities and details that would be needed for the team’s latest assignment, a light tapping shook the door, which was unnervingly loose on its hinges. “Come in,” he said over his shoulder. The door scraped open twenty-five percent of the way, just enough for a small-framed woman to peek in.

When he looked at the screen of the phone, he realized his mother had hung up on him. With a huff, he threw the phone to the side. He clicked at the screen of his computer, going somewhere he couldn’t really see. With every frustrated click, the angry heat welled up further in his spine.

The wind blew locks of her copper-colored hair under her chin as she stared at the horizon. She would have simply looked pensive had it not been for the long dull tears wetting her face. Her feet stood planted on the wooden dock, informing the sea that she would never stop waiting for his return.

“RAAAAH!!” A man dressed in ripped clothes and a clown mask jumped out from behind a curtain and raised his chainsaw threateningly at his next victim. A little girl with blond pigtails stood there and stared at him with big bored eyes, clearly unimpressed. His “RAAAAH!!” died down pathetically as he stared back, suddenly disheartened.

Chad hugged himself near the bushes smoking a Marlboro as three children ran through his yard, screaming with laughter. Two children had thick coats and scarves on while the third, a nine- or ten –year-old boy, ran around in an old red sweater and jeans. Chad pitched the cigarette onto the ground before heading inside.

This week, I sat down and drew a ton. More than last week. I sat down at my computer and sifted through a bunch of my favorites stored on my DeviantArt (www.deviantart.com) account (http://mrsronaldweasley.deviantart.com) to see if there was anything that I would want to draw. I found a ton of photos by a particular artist known as “scarabuss” (http://scarabuss.deviantart.com). So, I went through a large chunk of his photos and picked out pictures to draw. He usually takes photos of female models. I like his work not only because the pictures are gorgeous but because the models usually have interesting body positions, which always makes for good drawing practice. He also plays with light a lot, which makes good practice for shading. So, his work is a really great resource for any time that I want to sit down and tackle a new challenge as far as drawing is concerned. His stuff is sometimes useful for digital artwork, too. I have used some of his work to turn into silhouette art before. (For a while about a year ago, I went through a period where I really liked to turn pictures into silhouettes for fun on my computer using a program called GIMP and my drawing tablet and pen.) When I sat down to draw this week, I wanted to challenge myself a little bit by trying to draw things that I usually hate drawing. I initially sat down to find pictures with people’s hands in them so I could learn how to draw hands in different positions. Then I wanted those hands to be integrated into the entire picture. So, I started drawing pictures that had hands AND challenging body positions. I also tried to draw a kiss since I usually dread that. I have yet to master drawing a kiss, but I think this one ended up turning out alright. Occasionally, I played with shading in the drawings, but for the most part I just focused on proportions and accuracy. I had a lot of fun. Some pieces weren’t very good at all. But that’s practice, I suppose.

There wasn’t really a ton to do after the first checkpoint. The first thing I had to do was pick which angle I like the most. I had really wanted to use all of my shots, so it was hard to choose one that I thought would convey the message best. However, I ended up choosing the one that came to my mind first, which was the front view of the diner, with the lead singer of All American Rejects sitting in front, singing. I had some trouble with coloring things as I did everything in Photoshop (I did not want to lose color I already had by printing and scanning in details. Plus, I have a computer tablet to draw with.). I also liked adding in people. I used a picture of the lead singer of All American Rejects to add his face to the person on the bench. I was even consistent with the uniforms on the waitresses. I tried to add a decent amount of detail, but a lot of the detail came from designing the inside of the diner earlier on, so you could see it all through the window. I was a little disappointed in how flat things looked after I started Photoshopping, but considering I’ve never really used Photoshop before, I think that the whole thing turned out pretty well.
I don’t really know why I chose a diner for this song. For some reason, it seemed really appropriate. The song seems so laidback and comfortable, like a diner. Also, the song has both happy and sad tones to it so that it would be hard, without lyrics, to tell what the mood of the song is. I feel like the best physical environmental representation of that is a diner because it is a cheery place but it also has that low “I could go here and eat soggy sausage when I’m depressed” feel, too. That balance made it a perfect environment for this song.

This week, I have done a LOT of sketching. Not only have I been keeping up with the assignments for Telecom, but I have also been sketching for my drawing class. I have been looking up tutorials online to get better at things I am not good at (like feet!! I hate drawing feet!!), and I just keep sketching for as long as I can. I always sketch in other classes and take notes for them in drawing form if I can (you should see the notes for my business presentations class). Recently, my drawing class has started on shading. This is my worst nightmare. I knew this day would come, and I want to learn how to shade, but it’s always my fear. It’s SO MUCH DETAIL, and I can never seem to get it right. I was nervous to say the least, trying really hard and feeling like I was failing. I was worried that I’d never be a great artist and go into advertising if I couldn’t get basic shading down. After all, it’s important to understanding how you must light a set for a photo-shoot or music video or commercial. Every detail matters, and if I couldn’t figure out shading, I was screwed. So, we started on shading this week, and I was not doing SUPER well, but I was doing alright. So, I just kept practicing (in classes of course). I would practice by drawing people I didn’t know from the back and shading their clothes. To say the least, I am impressed with how far I’ve come in a week. I have gone from cartoon line drawings and some perspective to wicked realistic drawings that look better because I decided to add shadows and light. I feel quite accomplished, having overcome my fear of shading, and I’m sure I can improve even more in the near future, and certainly throughout the semester.

Process Statement:
This project was interesting. I continued to want to add more details than was necessary, plotting out a kitchen and detailed doors that wouldn’t be seen from the final angle. The sketches were fun and I was surprised by all the images that came to mind. It was also shocking how easily I found the exact images I wanted for my mood board. I feel like the song is incredibly laid back so I wanted to evoke that feeling of being laidback and comfortable. I thought an appropriate setting for that sort of feeling was a 1950s diner with modern people in them. There’s an old trustworthy comfortable feeling about diners. The song also has a definite air of companionship. He sings “You can sit beside me when the world comes down.” This makes me think of two people being comfortable with everything around them and just being happy in each others’ presence. So, I imagined the singer in the booth drinking coffee and eating breakfast foods (at night of course) while laughing and chatting with his girl. Everything around them is mundane and welcoming. The challenge I see ahead is being able to add the letters to the front of the building so that it looks three dimensional and like a real diner. I also need to figure out the space around the diner. I was bummed though that I could only show one image in the end. I wanted to show a variety of images, like a mood board of my creations, to give a really good feel of the shots I wanted in the music video. So, I am going to have some difficulty picking a perfect angle for the image I want to submit in the end. So, I hope I have nice composition I the end.